LT204-5-AU-CO:
Criticism: Practice and Theory

The details
2019/20
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Thursday 03 October 2019
Saturday 14 December 2019
15
03 May 2019

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

BA W800 Creative Writing,
BA W801 Creative Writing (Including Year Abroad),
BA W803 Creative Writing (Including Placement Year),
BA W808 Creative Writing (Including Foundation Year)

Module description

The module is intended to familiarise students with how we think about and analyse artworks and human identity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our primary texts on this module are not works of fiction by novelists, filmmakers or dramatists, but the writings of theorists and cultural thinkers. We examine how these thinkers have addressed the changing world we live in, and its impact on who we are and how we write, read, envisage, and imagine.

We explore how theories of class, gender and the unconscious have altered not only our conceptions of identity, but also how we analyse texts and images. We ask how social conditions, technology and sexuality have changed not only our representations in literature, film, or theatre, but also our ways of interpreting.

Module aims

By introducing students to key ideas – such as myth, ideology, intertextuality, dream-work, mirror stage, and gender as a social construct – the module seeks to equip students with a broad array of conceptual tools which they can apply to their own critical and creative work. It introduces the thinkers and thinking behind such key concepts, showing the links between them, and explores how particular theories can help us to analyse artworks in novel and unexpected ways.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of a wide variety of approaches to works of literature and art. They will develop the competence to critically evaluate and apply theoretical frameworks in practice, and to analyse and interpret artistic and cultural works.

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

Weekly 1 hour lecture, followed by a weekly 1 hour class. Students must set aside approximately 6-8 hours each week for preparing the requisite reading.

Bibliography

  • Lapsley, Rob. (2013) 'Psychoanalytic Criticism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1987) Foe, London: Penguin.
  • Foucault, Michel. (2008) 'Panopticism', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader: Routledge.
  • Freud, Sigmund. (2002) 'Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes', in The masculinity studies reader, Malden, Mass: Blackwell. vol. Keyworks in cultural studies, pp.14-20
  • Freud, Sigmund. (2008) 'A Note on the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Lacan, Jacques. (2008) 'The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Williams, Raymond. (2008) 'Culture is Ordinary', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2008) 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Villeneuve, Denis; Gosling, Ryan; Ford, Harrison; Dick, Philip K. (©2018) Blade runner 2049, Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
  • Beauvoir, Simone de. (1997) The Second Sex, London: Vintage.
  • Wake, Paul. (2013) 'Narrative and Narratology', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Haraway, Donna. (2008) 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader: Routledge.
  • Baudrillard, Jean. (no date) 'Simulacra and Simulations', in Jean Baudrillard : selected writings., pp.169-187
  • Cixous, Hélène. (2008) '“Sorties”, an extract from La Jeune Née (“The Newly Born Woman”)', in Modern criticism and theory: a reader, Harlow: Longman.
  • Churchill, Caryl. (2010) Cloud nine, London: Nick Hern.
  • Marx, Karl. (2008) 'Preface to 'Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Freud, Sigmund. (1976, reprinted 1982) 'The Dream-Work', in The interpretation of dreams, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
  • Daly, Glyn. (2013) 'Marxism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, London: Routledge.
  • Malpas, Simon; Wake, Paul. (2013) The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Poe, Edgar Allan. (c1953) 'The Purloined Letter', in The greatest American short stories: twenty classics of our heritage, New York: Webster Div., McGraw-Hill Book Co.
  • Badmington, Neil; Thomas, Julia. (2008) The Routledge Critical and Cultural Theory Reader, London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
  • Said, Edward. (2008) 'Introduction to Orientalism', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1988) 'Heteroglossia in the Novel', in The dialogic imagination: four essays, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
  • Irigaray, Luce. (c1997) 'This sex which is not one', in Feminisms: an anthology of literary theory and criticism, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • Hall, Donald E. (2013) 'Gender and Queer Theory', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Eaglestone, Robert. (c2009) 'Doing English Today', in Doing English: a guide for literature students, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Bailly, Lionel. (2009) 'Real, Symbolic, Imaginary', in Lacan: a beginner's guide, Oxford: Oneworld.
  • Fish, Stanley Eugene. (1980) 'What Makes an Interpretation Acceptable?', in Is there a text in this class?: The authority of interpretive communities, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
  • Lacan, Jacques. (1988) 'Seminar on "The Purloined Letter"', in The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida & psychoanalytic reading, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Buell, Lawrence. (2009) 'The World, the Text, and the Ecocritic', in The future of environmental criticism : environmental crisis and literary imagination: John Wiley and Sons Ltd., pp.29-61
  • Cixous, Helene. (2009) 'The Laugh of the Medusa', in Feminisms redux: an anthology of literary theory and criticism, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press., pp.416-431
  • Belsey, Catherine. (2013) 'Poststructuralism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Hekman, Susan. (2013) 'Feminism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Buell, Lawrence. (2009) 'Glossary of Selected Terms', in The future of environmental criticism : environmental crisis and literary imagination: John Wiley and Sons Ltd., pp.135-149
  • Malpas, Simon. (2013) 'Historicism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Butler, Judith. (2008) 'Imitation and Gender Subordination', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Daly, Glyn. (2013) 'Marxism', in The Routledge companion to critical and cultural theory, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Cramer, Florian. (2015) '“What is ‘Post-Digital’?”', in Postdigital aesthetics : art, computation and design, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan., pp.12-27
  • Barthes, Roland. (2008) 'The Death of the Author', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Dick, Philip K. (©1968) Do androids dream of electric sheep?, London: Gollancz.
  • White, Hayden. (2008) 'The Burden of History', in The Routledge critical and cultural theory reader, Abingdon: Routledge.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Participation    10% 
Coursework   Essay (2,000 words)    90% 
Exam  Main exam: 60 minutes during January 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
50% 50%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
50% 50%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Mary Mazzilli, email: m.mazzilli@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Joanna Rzepa, email: joanna.rzepa@essex.ac.uk.
tbc
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

 

Availability
No
No
No

External examiner

Prof Duncan James Salkeld
University of Chichester
Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 29 hours, 29 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information

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